Students Buckling Up For Bucks County Seatbelt Challenge

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Buckle up Bucks County teens! It is time to see which high school in Bucks County will have the highest seatbelt usage this school year.

TMA Bucks announced during National Teen Driver Safety Week it is once again challenging Bucks County high school students to always buckle up as the 16th Annual Bucks County High School Seatbelt Safety Challenge & Teen Driver Safety Video PSA Challenge officially begins.

Baseline surveys of student driver seatbelt use have been conducted at every public and private high school in Bucks County. Surveys were conducted safely and without the knowledge of the student body or administration in order to ensure the most accurate data sampling. Each school’s result is being forwarded to them with an invitation to participate in the challenge.

"Our Bucks County High School Seatbelt Safety Challenge delivers evidence-based results year after year that show Bucks County high school students are getting the message to buckle up,” said TMA Bucks executive director Stephen Noll. “The total combined school average percentage was an impressive 90 percent for the fifth time in the last six surveys conducted in the fall. There is still plenty of work to be done though to get more students to buckle up and we challenge all Bucks County high schools to step up and continue to promote seatbelt use!”

The Bucks County High School Seatbelt Safety Challenge encourages participating high schools to raise their student driver seatbelt usage over the course of the year as various student groups at each school work to actively promote seatbelt use within the student body using posters, t-shirts, school-wide announcements and other creative messages.

In spring, an unannounced follow-up survey is conducted at each of the participating schools. The school with the highest overall percentage in seatbelt use and the school with the greatest percentage increase in seatbelt use are both awarded with perpetual trophy plaques and $500 cash grants for safety-related use by the school.

Back again this year as part of the initiative is the Teen Driver Safety Video PSA Challenge powered by Comcast. As part of the Seatbelt Challenge all Bucks County high schools have the opportunity to produce and submit a 30-second video PSA on teen driver safety. It can deal with any aspect including seatbelts, texting, distracted driving, speeding, etc. The school selected as the winner will get a $500 cash grant and their video will play on Comcast networking. Videos must be uploaded to YouTube with the link emailed to dave@bctma.com by April 3, 2023 to be eligible to win.

AAA Mid-Atlantic, Automotive Training Center (Warminster campus), Bucks County Community College, Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, Jefferson Bucks Hospital, McMahon (a Bowman company), Senator Tommy Tomlinson, Stark & Stark, Univest and Visit Bucks County are sponsors of the event.

The TMA Bucks Community Traffic Safety Program has free programming available to all Bucks County high schools on any highway safety topic such as distracted driving, impaired driving, seatbelt safety, pedestrian safety, and bicycle safety. Reach out to Carly Mannon at carly@bctma.com for more information.

TMA Bucks is a non-profit transportation management association designed to promote and coordinate travel demand management strategies to reduce peak-hour traffic congestion and serve as a clearinghouse for transportation policies and programs throughout Bucks County. TMA Bucks also manages the Bucks County Community Traffic Safety Program in partnership with the County of Bucks and the TMA Bucks Foundation. The TMA is membership supported and businesses can learn more about the benefits of membership at tmabucks.com.